“Or I could click seventy buttons.” 10 ▲ Unsung 45 days ago · Tech · hide · 1 comments I like Angela Collier’s videos about physics and I was delighted to discover this 18-minute one… …because it’s a great continuation to the thread about the complexity of Microsoft Office I shared recently. Collier talks about why physicists prefer LaTeX to Word. LaTeX is sort of a nerdy HTML that predates HTML. It looks like this… …and given how nerdy HTML already is, you might imagine this is a power-user tool that’s chiefly about power and control. But Collier makes the argument that there are some things that LaTeX makes much easier: there is absolutely no need (or peer pressure) to spend time styling the document by choosing fonts, colors, etc., there is no “live preview,” and making a PDF is a separate step similar to compilation in coding – which means it doesn’t constantly occupy your mind, GUIs can slow you down because the keyboard is faster than the mouse, LaTeX doesn’t give you a lot of control over positioning, which is better than giving you only a semblance of control… Log in to reply on the Fediverse. Comments will appear here. unattributed 𓂃✍︎ @unattributed@gotosocial.social 45 days ago [-] I didn't watch her whole video, but I did watch enough to understand both her apology, and her explanation.The apology was she dismissed a submission to a publication as obviously being written by AI because the author used Word. Which, honestly, is highly likely for the exact reason(s) she gives: the overwhelming use of LaTeX in academia, and especially in the sciences.I don't know if she talked about it, but one of the excellent advanced features of LaTeX is the use of document classes. These work like templates, but are defined for formatting LaTeX output for specific fields. For example, there are classes for APA, ACM, IEEE publication submissions, etc.Personally, I'm not in any field that requires the precision that these document classes require. However, I use a LaTeX front end called LyX for formatting my books. LyX is a great way to simplify the interface between the author and LaTeX, while maintaining all the flexibility. (Should you need to do something not supported in the current document class, you can use insets to insert your own LaTeX code.)LyX can output documents using LaTeX, DocBook, and other formats. It's exactly what is needed for complex document production.
